People

Phred Benham (PI)

As a young birder growing up in New Hampshire, I became involved in bird research from an early age assissting Len Reitsma at Plymouth State University. I traveled to Louisiana State University and the LSU Museum of Natural Science for my undergraduate studies. I pursued a Master’s thesis on the biogeography of Andean metaltail hummingbirds with Chris Witt at the University of New Mexico. This was followed by a PhD with Zac Cheviron at the Universities of Illinois and Montana where I focused on salt marsh adaptation in the Savannah Sparrow. An NSF post-doctoral fellowship brought me to the University of California Berkeley. Currently, I am an Assistant Professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in the Department of Biology & Wildlife and Institute of Arctic Biology.

Megan DiSaia (Master’s student)

I am originally from Massachusetts and moved to Alaska shortly after graduating from the University of Vermont in 2021. Since then, I have had the opportunity to travel extensively across the state through my work with the U.S. Geological Survey and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, gaining hands-on experience in wildlife and fisheries research. My appreciation for the places I work in, and the wildlife that inhabit them, has strongly shaped my path. I am motivated to support species conservation and encourage sustainable relationships between people and wildlife.

I have particularly enjoyed working with birds, including contributing to an Emperor Goose population ecology study and volunteering with Bird TLC. I recently relocated from Kodiak to begin my Master’s in Wildlife Biology and am excited to join Phred’s lab, where I plan to focus on the effects of prescribed fire on boreal forest bird communities

Kolibri Drobish (Master’s student)

I grew up in southern British Columbia climbing mountains, skiing and enjoying wild landscapes. These experiences and my strong passion for ecological conservation have guided my interests for furthering my studies in ecology and wildlife biology. I recently graduated with my undergraduate degree from Northern Michigan University where I studied Ecology. I am currently a new graduate student starting my Masters in Wildlife Biology with Phred Benham where I will be studying metabolic effects caused by heat stress on boreal bird species in Alaska.

Sabina Osthi (Phd student)

I am from Nuwakot, Nepal. I grew up in the foothills of the Himalayas and I love mountains and anything outdoors, especially hiking. I grew up around nature and started growing a passion for wildlife and birds since my childhood. This passion led me to join Biological science and I have completed my Master's Degree in Zoology specializing in ecology and environment. I worked on the effects of urban green patches in the bird community for my masters degree thesis. I joined Dr. Phred Benham’s lab in the fall of 2026 to start my PhD. I am broadly interested in how birds adapt to extreme environments and high elevation (especially in the Himalayas). In the future, I would like to study various bird species adapting in the Himalayas of Nepal (which is very understudied). I believe the skills and education that I will be learning in the BEEC lab in the University of Alaska Fairbanks would help me as an Ornithologist in a country with limited research with limited numbers of Women in science.